Saturday, May 08, 2004

Pay 4 MP3

I have an idea for a protest movement that could save MP3s. The idea came from this site which criticizes iTunes. Valid points...but his suggestion of sending money directly to the artist made me think. What if that's not such a crazy idea? Concept: people download a song over Kazaa or whatever. They like it, they send a dollar to the artist (any publicly available address will do), along with an anonymous letter that basically says "I downloaded your song. This dollar is payment for it." The concept is to show that people who download mp3s would pay for them if they could, that we're not all thieves. If enough people did this, I think it would send a powerful message to the musicians and refute the RIAA's claims that they have to put all these crappy restrictions on online music to control it. "Hey, we're paying for them and you didn't even ask!" Plus, imagine Eminem or Jewel being told they've been sent hundreds of dollars by anonymous online music fans. How could they still oppose the mp3 community? I wish I could work on this, make a site with a form letter and a database of addresses for various artists. I want to start the revolution.